The changes we have made to make it our own version and for our own personal preference/taste are as follows…

Instead of colby cheese we use a decent mature cheddar. We use feta instead of cendrillon. Along with 1/2lb of bacon we use a whole ring of chorizo (both fried nice and crispy). Other than that we follow the rest.

When the mac ‘n’ cheese has cooked try to avoid eating it all there and then, because believe me you will want to. Let it cool and then fridge it overnight.Here is a video of it fresh out of the oven and still talking to me mac vid

The next day mould into balls (we went for tennis ball size), and beat a few eggs for an egg wash. Have another bowl ready with your breadcrumbs. You can season the breadcrumbs if you choose to (we added a dash of Miss Piggy’s dry rub). Coat your mac n cheese balls in egg wash and breadcumbs and deep fry for between 5 and 10 mins at approx 170 degrees C, until golden brown and heated through.

Enjoy!

]]>UDS Build.http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=443
Sat, 17 Aug 2013 14:23:17 +0000http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=443For years now I have fancied having a go at building a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) but never really had the time. So with less U.K. competitions in the calendar and my business being quieter than normal this year I decided to make a start.

After reading numerous forums and pages on the internet I decided to search out and pay extra for a new, unlined, open top drum, as I really couldn’t face burning out and sanding the dreaded tan liner, and I also wanted to know that nothing nasty had been in the drum. £40 well spent for piece of mind though.

The only things that needed removing were the strap that holds the top on and a rubber strip inside the lid.

The next job was to make a charcoal fire basket with ashpan. Again, reading the forums a good way to go was to buy a cheapo supermarket bbq and use it’s base as an ashpan. I decided to bolt the ashpan to a replacement pro q excel charcoal basket.

Next job was the exhaust. I wanted a small right angle piece of car exhaust fitting into the existing bunghole. So a quick visit to a former neighbour and an hour later I had this.

For a living I work with carbon fibre and I wanted to cover the whole barrel with it but unfortunately my curing oven is too small to accommodate it. I did try one section to see if it would get hot enough to cure whilst running but it didn’t, so we opted for a Matt black finish and I have used the carbon fibre on the lid and side tray.

The only thing I would probably do differently next time is some kind of different wheel system. The castors I have fitted have made it a bit wobbly but not terrible.

I always intend to use a guru controller to run this uds so there was no need to add any more than one inlet, which I did complete with ball-valve. Also pictured here is the side tray.

I personally prefer the uds with its original lid as opposed to the weber lids that some people choose to fit, which meant I set the first grate 6″ down and another 3″ under that.

Handles fitted.

First burn.

Holding temp perfectly.

As most people that have built one of these cookers knows they are one of the most reliable available and so economic. After 14 hours on one load of charcoal I had to shut it down and there was more than half the basket of charcoal remaining.
Fantastic!

]]>Miss Piggy’s Classes and Corporate Team Building.http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=358
Fri, 03 May 2013 12:55:01 +0000http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=358Miss Piggy’s were, yet again given a fantastic opportunity over the last few days (3rd and 4th September 2013) to preach the gospel of ‘Low and Slow’ true U.S. BBQ along with our partner in the U.K. BBQ Association http://ukbbqa.com/ , Adie Platts, at the Universal Cookery and Food Festival held at Warbrook House in Berkshire.http://www.cookeryandfoodfestival.co.uk/

The show was specifically by Chefs for Chefs, to enable them to stay on top of any trends in the Food world. Thankfully for us and everyone involved in U.S. style BBQ in the U.K. this fantastic style of cooking we all love is one of those top trends at present. We proved to be a great attraction raising awereness and interest.

Most of April and May 2013 Pitmaster of Miss Piggy’s, Scott Lane has been in the fortunate position of being invited to be a bbq consultant for Asdas bbq team Butchers select, in their attempt at this years Memphis in May World BBQ Championships. It has been a great couple of months with many secrets and techniques shared from both sides. We feel the team will be well equiped to go over to Memphis and ‘hold their own’. We would like to wish John, Dermott, Mark and the rest of the team Good ‘Smokin’ luck and we will be rooting for you. Hope your name is called last! Have a look at a short video of their trip.

Following on from this Miss Piggy’s BBQ along with our Partners in the UK BBQ Association Bite the Bullet BBQ were asked to give a 2 day BBQ Corporate Masterclass. The event was absolutely fantastic and has hopefully formed the blueprint for future Corporate events and team building. Here are some pictures from ‘Alfreton in August’.

Attendees were split into four teams and given a gazeebo, cookers, meat, spices and sauces and everything they needed to cook ribs and one other meat, along with sides. They were also asked to decorate their stands as they would in a big U.S. competition such as Memphis in May or The Jack Daniels.

There was even a T Shirt catwalk competition. Even though this was an ‘all for fun’ two days the competition was fierce. So after the initial Masterclass given by Miss Piggy’s and Bite the Bullet it was down to the serious BBQ. The teams were judged in a mixture of KCBS blind judging and Memphis in May onsite judging. Some fantastic food was presented for judging, along with amazing effort on presentation, and all in all it was an extremely succesful and enjoyable 2 days.

Should you require further information about a Corporate event including team building BBQ competitions such as this please get in touch. scott@misspiggysbbq.co.uk

The latest recipe for this page is another experiment that, fortunately, went very well. We decided to mix the fabulous experience that is an English Pork Pie with the taste sensation of U.S.Style pulled pork!

For the pastry. Mix flour and pork rub together and rub 30g of the lard into the pastry. Heat the other 30g of lard with the water, until it boils then add the flour mixture and remove from heat. Mix until it is cool enough to kneed and kneed well. Seperate a fifth (approx 50g) to make the pie lid and refrigerate overnight.

For the jelly. Put the trotter in a saucepan with the water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 hours to reduce to approx 500ml. Strain and then dissolve the gelatine into it. It is now ready to fill into the pie.

Remove the pastry from the fridge approx 2-3 hours prior then construct the pie by ‘raising’ the pastry up the dolly (or jam jar if you don’t have one).

Try to maintain an even thickness all round. Gently remove the dolly and firmly place your ball of pork into the pastry, moulding the sides to the meat. Roll out the piece reserved for the pie lid and cut out a circle. Gently brush the rim with egg and put the lid in place. Seal the lid to the wall all the way round by gently pinching together then push the sides in at the top to create the ‘crimped’ look. Chill overnight prior to baking. Brush the top with egg and make a hole in lid prior to baking.

You could fire up the smoker for this but we used the oven at 220 degrees C for approx 1 1/4 hours, until the crust was a lovely golden brown.Allow pie to cool before making two small holes in the lid. Pour in the jelly until it overflows and leave to cool again. Refrigerate overnight and remove from the fridge approx an hour before eating.

BRUNSWICK BEEF AND ALE PIE.

Whilst doing our latest magazine feature for ‘Fire and Food’ magazine I was pondering over the answer to a question they asked, and many others have asked before. What is typical English Food or a typically English BBQ.
So thinking on from that we decided to ‘experiment’ with mixing some ‘traditional’ British food with some U.S.A. style BBQ dishes and see where it took us.
First up was a Brunswick Beef Brisket and Ale Pie. The wonderful taste of Brunswick stew made with left over BBQ beef brisket meets our very own Beef and Ale pie. A match made in BBQ heaven!

Put everything except the pastry into a large stock pot and if extra fluid is needed top up to cover ingredients with water. Bring to boil and cook on medium heat to cook veg and reduce fluid and thicken sauce. This can take up to 4 hours depending how thick you like it. Remember to taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve into pie dishes and top with pastry. Pop into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for 20-30 mins (until crust is browned).
Who ate all the pies?

Credit to development chef Feeney for the original idea. Thanks John!

]]>Fire and Food Magazine feature.http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=361
Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:36:43 +0000http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=361Here is the published feature for Fire and Food magazine.

Thanks to everyone who took part and to all of our sponsors, especially Weber U.K. for providing most of the days equipment.

]]>Feature day for Fire and Food magazine.http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=328
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:24:06 +0000http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=328About a month ago we were contacted by ‘Fire and Food’ magazine about the possibility of them writing an article about Miss Piggy’s and also the UKBBQ Association and UK BBQ in general. We were thrilled at the prospect as the magazine reaches approx 70,000 readers in Germany and Netherlands. We settled on Sunday 10th of March 2013 as the date of the shoot. We thought it would be a good idea to combine the weekend with a UKBBQA meeting on the Saturday afternoon and, on Saturday evening, a meal out at The Globe Inn, which is the venue for our first competition, and the first ever KCBS sanctioned competition in the U.K.

The meeting went well and so too did the meal. The chef at the Globe is fantastic and I can’t beleive the quality of the food for the prices they charge! One of the specials enjoyed by some of the party was pan fried pheasant with bubble and squeek. Wow!

If I said everyone was very quiet and didn’t drink much at all, would you beleive that? Well it was a BBQ crowd what do you expect? We even tried to continue the UKBBQA meeting after returning to HQ !!!!

The following morning though everyone was up bright early setting up and prepping their dishes to present for the article. It was madness with so many cooks in such a small space but we all made it work, and the Dutch magazine editors (who I had told everyone were German!) thought it was one of the best shoots they had been to. The magazine is published in german and Dutch and, apparently goes out to approx 70000 readers. After its release we can put a link here for everyone to read and they even promised to translate it for us. Part of the article was about Miss Piggy’s and the rest about UKBBQA and the British BBQ scene in general. They asked us to produce 5 dishes and to try to focus on typically British themes. Here is what we did.

Adie Platts of Bite the Bullett BBQ Team and co-founder of UKBBQA produced a beautiful take on our traditional Sunday Lunch pf Roast Beef. He cooked a boneless prime rib roast with Yorkshire Puddings and Roast Potatoes all done on his Jambo Pit and Weber Smokey Mountain cooker.

Claire Platts, also of Bite the Bullett BBQ team, cooked a Linzer Torte for dessert, again on ‘Edna’ the Jambo pit.

Charlie Langridge of Smokin’ Penguins BBQ team cooked a Full English Breakfast fatty on a Weber One Touch Grill and a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker.

We all had a great time doing the feature and our visitors from the magazine seemed to enjoy the day too. We have more pictures on our facebook pages and also soon on the www.UKBBQA.com website. We would like to say a massive thankyou to our sponsors for the day Weber, for helping us make it possible. Also thanks to everyone that attended and took part.

]]>Two all beef patties………http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=305
Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:44:30 +0000http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=305Most people are familiar with the song.

After stumbling across a youtube video of someone making a homemade big mac we decided to give it a go. So here is what we did and we thought the taste was great and the appearance was similar in looks to the advertising but twice the size of the actual burger!

The only thing to do in advance is make up the ‘special sauce’.

Mix all of these ingredients and allow them to ‘marry’ for a few hours in the fridge.

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

2 Tbs of French salad dressing

2 Tbs of Sweet pickle hamburger relish

1 Tbs of minced white onion

1 tsp of white vineger

1 tsp of white sugar

1/8 tsp of salt.

Next up….make your burger.

You will need 2 sesame seed buns per burger. 1 cut in half and the other with just the middle third cut out to make the middle of your burger.

2 palm sized balls of minced beef made into patties as thin or thick as you prefer (we made our about 1/2 inch thick), seasoned with a little salt and pepper. Half an onion (finely chopped). A handful of chopped lettuce. A couple of slices of burger cheese. Three or four slices of dill pickle.

Lightly toast the burger bun and fire up the pit. Grill the burgers for a few minute each side or until cooked through. Assemble as follows. Spread ‘special sauce’ on bottom of bun and middle of bun, follwed by lettuce, onion and dill then cheese and burger. Stack it all together and consume safe it the knowledge that you know exactly what went in there……

Pay at the next window please………………………

]]>The Drunks favourite Doner Kebab.http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=199
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:25:41 +0000http://misspiggysbbq.co.uk/blog/?p=199This recipe is adapted from a recipe found on the net for lamb shish kebabs and I have added my own tweeks to come up with something very similar to a Takeaway Doner Kebab, but obviously containing ingredients that were sourced by you and you will know exactly what they are……..anyone who has eaten a town centre takeaway kebab after a few adult beverages will understand where I am coming from!

Fire up the pit (or if you’re lazy the oven) to about 350 degrees F (or 180 C) and cook for approx 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done.

Serve with a salad and chilli sauce and garlic yoghurt.

]]>D.I.Y. BBQ Pizza.http://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=197
Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:08:19 +0000http://misspiggysbbq.co.uk/blog/?p=197Ok, the next feature in our D.I.Y. Takeaway food series is BBQ Pizza. Now you don’t need a dedicated Pizza oven for this so don’t be put off if you haven’t got one, we haven’t either. We have cooked pizza successfully on everything from an upright cabinet smoker to a weber grill. Your standard backyard bbq will do the job. The only extra I would suggest is a pizza stone, for ease of cooking and that extra special stone-baked feel. Here is an example http://www.weberbbq.co.uk/accessories/all-round-accessories/original-round-pizza-stone/

Also after speaking to Weber U.K., they have a lot of new products due this season. One of which is a neat attachment for any Weber 57cm grill/smoker, that will transform it into a pizza oven, which will enable an even cook of both the base and the toppings in super-quick time. So as soon as they are released and we get our hands on one we will be reveiwing it in another cook, but for now here is a sneaky look.

Starting with the pizza base. If you want to, there are many dough recipe’s on the internet that you can download, mix and spin around the room and your head to your hearts content, if you so choose, and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t do that. I, however, am lazy, so where I can, I will use ready made things, one of which being the pizza dough. I have tried making my own and can’t honestly tell any difference. I am not talking about buying a horrible supermarket ready made base that would be put to better use by standing your plate on it, but there are some shop bought doughs out there that you can roll to your required shape and thickness and even get creative with cheesy filled edges etc.

So choose the shape (I like plain old round) and choose your thickness ( I prefer thin) and get the base ready and onto your pizza stone. Next up toppings.

Start with the sauce. Take a tin of tomato paste/puree and add your spices. Experiment with spices and amounts to create your own pizza sauce. We use a tablesoon of ‘Todds Dirt’ which is a blend of mainly Italian herbs, but another simple spice mix is 1 teaspoon of each basil,oregano,thyme and garlic powder, plus salt and ground black pepper to taste. If you can let this sauce sit for a few hours in the fridge the flavours will have time to marry. When you are ready to assemble the pizza spread the mix onto the base first, but not too thick as this could make your base soggy, then get creative with your toppings. Next up cheese. Again experiment but try to start with a standard mozzarella to give your pizza stringiness. Also be careful to not load up with too much cheese as you will get that soggy base again. For our demo here we went with chunks of feta and mature cheddar. On top we went for olives, thinly sliced chorizo (miles tastier than pepperoni) bacon and merguez sausage chunks (so meat with a bit more meat). Finish off with a fine grating of parmesan.

Cook time will depend on what bbq or smoker you use and what temperature you are cooking at but if you can, get the grill very hot. So set up for direct grilling with coals evenly spread and pop the lid down and wait until it gets to around 500 degrees F or higher. Put the pizza in and close the lid. Check at around the 5-10 minute mark (unless your temperature is a lot higher then check earlier). Take off your delicious pizza when ready and consume along with your favourite beer!

]]>Experiments with Competition Chickenhttp://www.misspiggysbbq.co.uk/?p=183
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:40:06 +0000http://misspiggysbbq.co.uk/blog/?p=183We carried out an experiment with chicken thighs for competition recently at Miss Piggy’s BBQ HQ and here are our findings………
First things first, we had heard through the BBQ grapevine that certain teams were using secret ingredients to make the skin on the chicken thighs that they cook for competitions ‘bite through’, which is one of the things that can make them score better in competitions. So not wanting to miss out we decided to give this method a go.
We trimmed the thighs to a similar size but did nothing to the skin apart from apply the secret ingredient Mayonnaise!

We then seasoned the thighs with 3eyz new BBQ rub and then on to the pit.

We cooked the chicken at a slightly higher temperature of 300 degrees F for the first half hour to try to achieve the texture we wanted and then lowered the cooker temp to 230 to finish the cook.
We checked the internal temperature of the chicken at regular intervals and pulled them off the cooker at about 165-170 F. They looked and smelled fantastic and we deliberately did this test without saucing for two reasons. 1. The sauce may have affected the quality of the skin. 2. We wanted to see how nice the Rub tasted and whether or not we could taste the mayo.
Results.
We took one bite (as a judge would probably do) out of each thigh. 6 out of the 8 thighs had perfect ‘bite through’ skin as you can see in the picture. The taste showed no evidence of the mayo and the rub was very nice and highly recommended. No wonder 3 eyz were KCBS team of the year 2012.

Verdict.
We will definitely being doing more experimenting with this technique and well worth trying out for yourselves.